TY - JOUR
T1 - Nanoscale film morphology and property characteristics of dielectric polymers bearing monomeric and dimeric adamantane units
AU - Ree, Brian J.
AU - Kobayashi, Shingo
AU - Heo, Kyuyoung
AU - Lee, Taek Joon
AU - Satoh, Toshifumi
AU - Ishizone, Takashi
AU - Ree, Moonhor
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019
PY - 2019/4/15
Y1 - 2019/4/15
N2 - In this study, we report for the first time the thin film morphology and property characteristics of a series of adamantane-containing polymers, which were investigated by using synchrotron grazing incidence X-ray scattering, X-ray reflectivity and spectroscopic ellipsometry. The chemically incorporated monomeric and dimeric adamantane units could disturb regular chain packing, ultimately producing amorphous polymers. They further tend to randomize chain orientations even in nanoscale thin films; surprisingly, random chain orientations could be achieved even for thermally-annealed thin films, which are quite different from the in-plane orientations of conventional polymer films being enhanced by thermal annealing. As a result, isotropic optical refractive indices and dielectric constants could be demonstrated even in nanoscale thin films, which are highly demanded for the production of advanced microelectronic devices. Moreover, the adamantane units incorporated into the backbone and as primary side groups could significantly reduce the dielectric constant, refractive index, critical angle, electron density and mass density of polymer. Overall, the positive impacts of incorporated adamantane units are huge on the polymer morphology and properties. All adamantane-containing polymers of this study are suitable materials for advanced microelectronics, which can replace current workhorse dielectrics, such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride, and polyimides, being used in microelectronic devices.
AB - In this study, we report for the first time the thin film morphology and property characteristics of a series of adamantane-containing polymers, which were investigated by using synchrotron grazing incidence X-ray scattering, X-ray reflectivity and spectroscopic ellipsometry. The chemically incorporated monomeric and dimeric adamantane units could disturb regular chain packing, ultimately producing amorphous polymers. They further tend to randomize chain orientations even in nanoscale thin films; surprisingly, random chain orientations could be achieved even for thermally-annealed thin films, which are quite different from the in-plane orientations of conventional polymer films being enhanced by thermal annealing. As a result, isotropic optical refractive indices and dielectric constants could be demonstrated even in nanoscale thin films, which are highly demanded for the production of advanced microelectronic devices. Moreover, the adamantane units incorporated into the backbone and as primary side groups could significantly reduce the dielectric constant, refractive index, critical angle, electron density and mass density of polymer. Overall, the positive impacts of incorporated adamantane units are huge on the polymer morphology and properties. All adamantane-containing polymers of this study are suitable materials for advanced microelectronics, which can replace current workhorse dielectrics, such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride, and polyimides, being used in microelectronic devices.
KW - Adamantane-containing polymers
KW - Amorphous morphology
KW - Critical angle
KW - Electron density
KW - Isotropic dielectric constant
KW - Mass density
KW - Nanoscale thin films
KW - Optical isotropy
KW - Poly(adamantane)s
KW - Random chain orientation
KW - Refractive index
KW - Zero birefringence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062716362&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.polymer.2019.02.053
DO - 10.1016/j.polymer.2019.02.053
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85062716362
SN - 0032-3861
VL - 169
SP - 225
EP - 233
JO - Polymer
JF - Polymer
ER -